Public information meetings for downwinders scheduled

ST. GEORGE — The Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program at Dixie Regional Medical Center will hold public informational meetings in Cedar City and St. George in the coming weeks.

In Cedar City, the meeting will be held in the boardroom of Cedar City Hospital, 1303 N. Main Street, at 6 p.m. Feb. 22.

In St. George, the meeting will be held in the Select Health Auditorium, 1424 E. Foremaster Drive, at 6:30 p.m. on March 1.

Information will be presented about the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act and possible compensation available to “downwinders” in the area. The term “downwinder” is used to describe the more than 60,000 people who were exposed to radioactive fallout in Southern Utah and eastern Nevada during the government’s nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site in the 1950s and ’60s.